I first heard about Paul Jacoulet when we went to the Print Room in the basement of the art museum. I really love the bright colors he uses, and I love his subjects of people. They are all so interesting with such a story. Jacoulet’s art makes me feel inspired and determined, because he took a lot of time with each of his pieces of art. “Jacoulet’s art is a unique synthesis of the traditions of two great artistic cultures of Japan and France.” Jacoulet was born in Paris, France 1896, and moved to Japan when he was very young. He embraced Japanese cultural skills and traditions, and published a lot of his own work. He was taught by and worked with professional printmakers in Japan at his time, using the nicest most expensive materials, which has helped his prints endure over time. Jacoulet’s art has such a unique style using silver, gold and other rare elements. (One of my favorite artists- Gustav Klimt- also uses gold in his paints.) He also uses embossing, lacquers, micas, or metal pigments. In 1934, Jacoulet made his first woodblock print. There are 166 known prints by Jacoulet. Jacoulet used many many different blocks to create his prints, around 60-300 blocks per print. Jacoulet took a lot of his scenery from the sea and coastal side, and used people as the subject matter for most of his prints. He used very elaborate techniques to make his prints such as embossing, lacquers, micas, or metal pigments. In 2003, “The Rainbow Vision of French Ukiyo-e Artist Paul Jacoulet,” opened at the Yokohama Museum of Art, in Japan. I love the name of this exhibit because it just suits all of Jacoulet’s work so perfectly. He uses such vibrant colors and clean lines. I love his style of art and use of color. I attached two of my favorite pieces by Jacoulet. The first one, of the older man smoking, is called “Hokkan-zan. Seoul. Coree and Keyblock Outline.” I think the older-age of the man in this piece is perfect and suiting for the background and actions of the subject. The way he is not looking at the viewer but rather off to the distance. Looking into the distance gives me even more of the, “old and wise,” vibe, especially having him in front of majestic purple-pink mountains. Jacoulet makes many of his mountains in his imagery pink or purple, which I think is cool because I really like to go hiking and when the sun sets among the mountains they really do give off a purple glow. The second image I attached is called, “Coucher De Soleil A Menado.” Again with this piece and all of Jacoulet’s, I love the use of color! I really like the promiscuousness of this image. I really love what they are wearing and how her leg comes out of her dress. The purple water in the background and the changing colors of the clouds is really amazing. Jacoulet continued to make prints until his death to diabetes in 1960 at age 58.